The exciting line-up features eight plays and a host of fringe festivities
By Nicole-Marie Ng; Photos: Singapore Theatre Festival
Till 24 Jul, the Singapore Theatre Festival (STF) will be back for its fifth run. This year, the plays focus on the social issues faced by modern Singapore.
Artistic Director of the STF, Ivan Heng, sees the festival as a chance to introduce new ways of seeing and thinking about critical and oft-polarising views on race, religion, politics, sex and gender identity.
“Collectively and individually, the plays invite and enable conversation and debate about today’s hot-button topics. Insightful, funny and moving, they challenge and encourage us to imagine possibilities beyond our own biases and prejudices, giving us clues as to how we can live with one another,” says Heng.
Eight boundary-breaking plays
A 63-year-old tuition teacher falls in love again in “My Mother Buys Condoms”.
Held at LaSalle College of the Arts, the eight diverse plays range from the comical to the heart-breaking.
Seasoned Business Times journalist Helmi Yusof will be making his playwriting debut with “My Mother Buys Condoms”, a tongue-in-cheek story about a 63-year old tuition teacher who falls in love with an air-con repair man.
The festival also features young, undiscovered talents like Thomas Lim and Nessa Anwar, who wrote “Grandmother Tongue” and “Riders Know When It’s Gonna Rain” respectively. Both plays explore race and identity. “Grandmother Tongue” examines how family traditions are lost when younger generations no longer communicate in dialect. “Riders Know When It’s Gonna Rain” will take the audience on a wild ride with the Malay motor biking community.
The award-winning production “Hotel” will anchor the festival. Directed by Ivan Heng and Glen Goei, and written by Alfian Sa’at and Marcia Vanderstraaten, the play takes viewers on an epic odyssey through a hundred years of Singapore’s history via the guests, staff and ghosts of an iconic hotel in Singapore.
Join in the festivities
Geylang
Aside from plays, there will also be FEST!VITIES — a host of events designed to engage and entertain audiences beyond the rise and fall of the curtain.
The series of activities will be held at Laselle’s Lowercase Café and has a line-up of big names including Shigga Shay, Inch Chua, Sezairi, Pam Oei, Lim Kay Siu and Neo Swee Lin. The artists will be performing their “Songs of Protest”, personal anthems that shine a light on stories they want Singaporeans to hear.
The “Art & Life Sessions” provides a platform for members of the public to discuss pertinent social issues like free speech and family values with esteemed individuals. Nominated Member of Parliament, Kok Heng Leun; Worker’s Party Non-Constituency Member of Parliament, Daniel Goh; and Tan Pin Pin, filmmaker of “To Singapore, With Love”, will be there to engage the public in conversations that might impact Singapore’s future.
Tickets are on sale at Sistic. For more information, visit singaporetheatrefestival.com.
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of Weekender, Issue 156, July 8 – July 21, 2016, with the headline ‘What to look forward to at the Singapore Theatre Festival’.
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